


Queen of Christmas

by Barefootnotea



Series: Fifty Shades of Awesome [2]
Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Cameos, Christmas, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:09:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28245951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barefootnotea/pseuds/Barefootnotea
Summary: Christmas is only a few days away. There's a very particular Christmas present Jeongyeon wants to gift Nayeon this year, but fate as different ideas.
Relationships: Chou Tzuyu/Son Chaeyoung, Hirai Momo/Myoui Mina, Im Nayeon/Yoo Jeongyeon, Kim Dahyun/Minatozaki Sana
Series: Fifty Shades of Awesome [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714279
Comments: 19
Kudos: 350





	Queen of Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> This is the Queen of Mars Christmas Special, "Queen of Christmas". I recommend you read its predecessor, "Queen of Mars", but it's not necessary to understand what is going on.
> 
> This was written when Sana was in quarantine for corona during a year where everyone needs a little bit fluff, when we were all stuck at home, when Jeongyeon was sick, when so many Kpop fans and Kpop idols were struggling. It's to cheer all of you up. It's mostly a declaration of love for Twice, for Jeongyeon and Nayeon and the fandom as a whole. Therefore it's mostly fluff with very little plot. I still hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Merry Christmas, dear fellow Once, here's to a crazy year 2020 and to a hopefully better year 2021. Be excellent to each other! Love, Barefootnotea.  
> 22/12/2020

In most situations, when Jihyo got a call, she felt like a parent whose child had done something stupid and was now called in to school. Mostly said child was Nayeon - despite her utter brilliance in a lot of areas, she tended to get herself into trouble.

And Nayeon didn’t discriminate against anyone when getting into trouble with someone: older people, children, co-workers, employees of her own company or of other companies - even the bibimbap vendor in front of the Im Tower when there wasn’t enough rice in the bibimbap.

She was extremely creative when it came to getting into trouble. Fascinatingly enough, she didn’t get sued very often, if at all.

Today, when Jihyo received a call to come in and pick her up, she assumed it was Nayeon that got into trouble. Statistically it was just more likely that, between Nayeon and Jeongyeon, it was Nayeon who had done something stupid.

When she hurried into Myoui General Hospital that day, VIP wing, second floor, private chamber, she found herself in room 2020, just as the friendly lady at the reception had told her.

The doctor was a tall, gentle lady. Lee Sunmi, the small tag attached to her long white coat said. And Jihyo only got bits and pieces of her conversation with Nayeon when she burst in, prepared for the worst.

“I am, quite sure, that you can’t sue the manufacturer of a rubber duck, Miss Im.”

“Nobody has ever tried.”

“And I’m quite sure there’s a reason why nobody has ever tried,” the woman said, calm, friendly, but strict.

Jihyo immediately decided that she liked her. She entered the room with a few steps and noticed the most basic things: No blood. No black eyes. No screaming.

All three present looked up at her when she bowed and greeted and it was then that she realized who the injured person was.

It wasn’t Nayeon.

It was Jeongyeon.

Jeongyeon sat on the examination couch, her blonde hair in slight disarray, a pair of crutches leaning against her side. There were x-rays on a screen above her head and both Nayeon and the nice doctor sat on two chairs each, looking at her.

When Jihyo entered, all three turned to her.

Jeongyeon lifted a hand. “Hey, Jihyo.”

And that was when Jihyo’s eyes fell on Jeongyeon’s leg, bandaged, but no cast. “Hello … what happened to you?”

“There was a rubber duck,” Nayeon said. “It was yellow. I found it atop of our wardrobe in our apartment and … I was kind of wondering what it was doing up there, so I took a ladder and climbed up and …”

“Her balance isn’t exactly the best,” Jeongyeon grumbled and crossed her arms.

Jihyo wondered why the former bodyguard looked somewhat guilty.

“Anyway,” Nayeon said, shooting her girlfriend a pointed look. “I climbed up there and fell and …”

“I caught her and … then we both kind of fell and …”

“The landing was unfortunate,” Doctor Lee said. She stood and offered Jihyo the chair, which she declined. Doctor Lee shrugged and then motioned towards the screen on the wall. “Nothing’s broken, but apparently Miss Im has very pointy knees and Miss Yoo bruised and turned her knee in a way …” Doctor Lee sighed. “I’d say she strained her leg, but it’s nothing serious.”

Nayeon exhaled and Jeongyeon somewhat slumped back against the wall.

“However, I still don’t want you to overexert yourself,” Doctor Lee said, threatening Jeongyeon with her red ballpen. “No running, no sports, no extended walks or hikes for at least three weeks. This could have been way worse.”

Jihyo huffed. “Yeah, Nayeon, don’t overexert her. It will be like a holiday for all of us,” she said without thinking.

Nayeon elbowed Jihyo who had made the mistake of stepping closer. “Yah!  _ Louder _ ! I’m sure they haven’t heard you in  _ Daegu _ !”

“What  _ yah _ . She’s a doctor. I’m sure she’s heard way worse things than the escapades of you two. We have to share a house over the holidays with the two of you. Some quiet and festive pondering would do all of us good. It’s Christmas!”

Nayeon was about to complain further, but Doctor Lee just reached out and patted Nayeon’s arm. “I once operated exactly such a rubber duck out of a body entrance I’m not going to specify any further, so I  _ assure _ you. I have seen  _ much _ worse.”

Jihyo noticed Jeongyeon making the face she always did when she wanted to melt through the floor out of embarrassment. It was an incredibly funny face, Jihyo thought.

“Don’t worry, doc. I’ll make sure they behave.”

Doctor Lee smiled nicely at them. Jihyo really liked her. 

Nayeon cleared her throat and finally, they were on their way.

“Why was there a rubber duck on top of your wardrobe?” Jihyo asked, once they were in the elevator.

Nayeon threw her hands. “I don’t know! I’m wondering the same!”

Jeongyeon kept quiet about the entire thing. She clung silently to her crutches the entire way down to the car.

“Maybe one of your cats put it up there,” Jihyo mussed.

“Navely?” Nayeon frowned. “I don’t think so - there’s not much space between the ceiling and the wardrobe.” She helped Jeongyeon into the car. “And there’s no reason for any of them to do this.”

“Your Navely will turn all H.A.L. or Skynet on us one day and will try to conquer the world,” Jihyo said dryly.

“And the world will be a better one!” Nayeon ignored the eyeroll and instead hooked her arm under Jeongyeon’s, her hand resting on her girlfriend’s upper arm, caressing it gently.

Jeongyeon still kept quiet - the entire way up to Im Tower.

*

It had been incredibly unfortunate that Nayeon had found the rubber duck. Jeongyeon didn’t even know why or how she had found it. That stupid thing had been pushed back, way way back, atop of that wardrobe. It was as if she owned a six sense when it came to things in their apartment that weren’t where they were supposed to be.

Jeongyeon eyed her crutches and then the rubber duck in her hands.

“To duck or not to duck,” she said and held the duck a bit away from her.

Nayeon was pacing in the kitchen, on the phone. “For the hundredth time,” she said sharply. “We are  _ not _ going to produce a rice cooker that can connect with iTunes.” There was a pause. Her voice grew sharper. “Why?  _ Why?! _ Because first of all, iTunes is a shitty plattform. Im Music Store is way more capable. And second of all,  _ iTunes? _ For your rice cooker? What the hell?!” Another pause. “I don’t  _ care _ what Elon Musk says! He’s just jealous of Navely! And that I will be first on Mars!” She continued pacing.

Jeongyeon figured that she would be busy for some time. Next to her, on the couch, her cellphone came to life. The heart-shaped face grinned widely as it addressed Jeongyeon:

“Love of my life.”

Jeongyeon groaned. “Please don’t.”

“Princess of my heart!”

“Navely -”

“Hotshot of hotshots!”

“What.”

“I haven’t hidden a rubber duck atop the wardrobe in your bedroom,” it said cheerily. “There’s no mistake in my coding.”

Jeongyeon took a deep breath. “I know, I know.”

“But I think, if you allow me the assumption, that you have put it there,” Navely continued. “Queen Consort of the future Queen of Mars.”

“I -” Jeongyeon coughed, then cleared her voice. “Yeah … well. It … yeah.” She took a deep sigh and poked the crutches next to her with her good leg. One of them slid away. “Navely?”

“Yes, my supreme sweet burrito?” Navely said.

Jeongyeon eyed Navely, a moment of deathly silence between them. “First of all, no food nicknames! Like, dude, please. Don’t go there. And second of all, would you do me a favor and call Mina?”

Navely’s smile didn’t even dim. “Of course, schnookums.”

Jeongyeon exhaled once more. The LaburiOS’ pet name routine had gotten out of control after Nayeon and her had gotten together. 

“Calling Mina parenthesis open lives in my TV parenthesis close,” Navely announced and moments later, there was a click and then a calm voice:

“Yes? Jeongyeon eonnie?” she said. “I’ve heard you had an accident?”

Jeongyeon got up and moved away from Nayeon, still having a heated discussion with her development department.

“I - did. Nayeon fell and I … tried to catch her.” She shook her head. “I didn’t do a good job.” She limped further away from the kitchen towards the windows that provided a generous view of the skyline that was Seoul.

“Oh, eonnie,” Mina said. “I’m sorry to hear. Will you still come to our Christmas celebration?”

“Of course. I’m just limping. It’s no biggie.”

“I’m not sure I can trust you there,” Mina said. There was a lot of worry and a faint smile in her voice.

“But you can trust Jihyo! And if Jihyo says I can go, then … anyway. Mina. Remember the … the …” She looked over to Nayeon, pacing behind the kitchen counter.

(“No hair dryers that can melt cheese! Oh my God! Why am I even paying you!”)

“The project?” Mina supplemented. “Of course I do.”

“Yeah … about that. Nayeon found the … rubber duck. I think we have to proceed with the project,” Jeongyeon said. “Can you maybe …?”

Mina chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll prepare everything. Everything will go as planned. Trust me.”

Jeongyeon relaxed slightly. Mina had some divine power to make people believe in themselves. Whenever they talked, Jeongyeon felt at ease immediately. “Thank you, Mina. And Mina?”

“Yes?”

“Please don’t tell anyone.”

Mina chuckled once more. “I won’t,” she said. “Don’t worry.”

Jeongyeon felt arms go around her midsection. Someone craned and pecked the side of her neck.

“Is that Mina?” Nayeon asked.

“Tell her I'll see her soon,” Mina said from the other side. “At the residence.”

“Give Momo my regards,” Jeongyeon answered.

Mina’s smile was more apparent now in her voice. “I will. Till soon, Jeongyeon eonnie.”

The kisses against Jeongyeon’s throat became more insistent.

Jeongyeon felt her throat bop up and down and her mouth was getting dry. Someone was being unfair. “Till soon, Mina. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Jeongyeon ended the call and turned around in the embrace to return it. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Nayeon looked up at her. “You shouldn’t walk around without your crutches like this.”

Jeongyeon hobbled over to the couch, Nayeon helping her. “You shouldn’t holler at your creative team like that.”

Nayeon shrugged. “They are being particularly ridiculous today. Was that Mina?”

Jeongyeon nodded. “Yeah.”

“Don’t tell me she cancelled on the Christmas vacation,” Nayeon asked.

Jeongyeon shook her head. “She didn’t. This call was … Christmas presents-related and therefore classified.”

Nayeon wrinkled an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Yes. Please don’t try.”

The eyebrow went up further and the development of a smirk started to worry Jeongyeon. “Please don’t try. I - really can’t tell you.”

Nayeon crawled close, one hand on each side of Jeongyeon’s body, careful not to put any weight on Jeongyeon’s leg. “Would you tell me if I tried hard enough?”

“I -” When Nayeon’s eyes zeroed in on her lips, Jeongyeon wet her lips. It made Nayeon’s pupils dilate and the shorter girl lean in.

And everything else was secondary after that anyway.

*

The Other Car made its way through the Korean countryside towards the Im Residence. Jihyo was already there, as were Sana and Dahyun. Mina and Momo would arrive by helicopter. Mina was still busy in Japan and Momo kept her company. And Chaeyoung and Tzuyu would come late on the day before Christmas, because they still spend time at Chaeyoung’s parents’ house.

It wasn’t the first Christmas they spent together, but it was the first with Nayeon and Jeongyeon as a couple.

Jeongyeon remembered past Christmases well - she and Jihyo had often been the only single people around when Nayeon had brought one of her many girlfriends or none of them. She hoped that Jihyo wouldn’t feel like an outsider, as the designated single friend.

Jeongyeon laid outstretched on the backseats, her crutches in the back of the car. Her leg only throbbed faintly, but she still couldn’t walk extended periods of time without a very uncomfortable burn.

Nayeon lay halfway atop of her, snoring against her clavicle. They had entered the car and when Jeongyeon had tugged at her arm, Nayeon had come to her willingly and hadn’t moved away. It was like this for most days.

She had learned early on that physical contact outside their bedroom activities was important for Nayeon - maybe to make sure that Jeongyeon was still there, as a reassurance of their relationship that had taken so long to finally bloom.

Looking down at her, she wondered if Nayeon was aware of these things.

She picked up one of the girl’s strands of hair and examined it: a light brown, almost a deep golden color. It suited her, Jeongyeon found, but then again Jeongyeon would have found her pretty with her head bald and dressed in ash and linen.

Nayeon’s grip around her hips tightened when Jeongyeon’s hands travelled down to Nayeon’s lower back. She drew a heart in the middle of her spine and Nayeon relaxed once more.

Taking out her phone, she opened the LaburiOS app. She opened the chat window for Navely and the assistant immediately appeared on the screen behind of the driver’s seat.

Before the AI could say something, Jeongyeon lifted her index finger to her lips.

Navely nodded and repeated the gesture.

“Show me the map,” she wrote into the chat window.

Navely answered immediately. “THE map?” it wrote.

Jeongyeon nodded seriously. “THE map.”

Navely produced a fine-emoji and then the screen changed. It showed the map between Seoul and the Im Residence. There was a dot between those two places that looked like a tiny black car that moved - The Other Car - and there was a second dot that moved; not as quickly, but consistently.

Jeongyeon leaned as far forward atop Nayeon as permitted. “Is it going to be on timel?” she wrote into the app.

“Yes,” Navely wrote back. “But there’s going to be a lot of snow tomorrow night - I hope it won’t affect the … thing.” It winked again.

“I hope so as well,” Jeongyeon said. She eyed the screen, then typed furiously. “You know you don’t have to wink at me every time we talk about this.”

“But you said we have to be inconspicuous,” Navely said.

“Yes, but - the other day in the elevator, Jively winked at me as well.”

“Jively is also inconspicuous,” Navely wrote. “We all wrote it into our routines.”

Jeongyeon blinked. “All of you?”

Navely nodded. It was rare but her seriousness concerning this topic had reached grave levels. “All of us.”

_ Great, _ Jeongyeon thought.  _ Great. This is - not at all adding to the stress I have with this entire thing. _

“Okay,” she said weakly. “Thanks, Navely.”

“Thanks, Navely, what?” Nayeon’s voice came from somewhere under her jaw, warm and a bit wet.

“I was wondering when we are there,” Jeongyeon said and cast a pointed glance at the screen. It disappeared immediately and Navely with it.

“Soon,” Nayeon stretched atop of Jeongyeon like a lazy cat and then took a deep sigh. Jeongyeon eyed the girl in her arms and sorted through her hair, then her warm palm came to rest on the side of her face. She spotted some remnants of the worry Jeongyeon had from before. Read it immediately for what it was.

Jeongyeon tried not to panic.

“Are you alright?”

“I am.”

“If you don’t want to spend Christmas with the others, I can still -”

“No, no.” Jeongyeon shook her head. “I think we have been a bit negligent towards are friends, caused by - by -”

Nayeon lifted a prodding eyebrow at her.

“By our enthusiasm for our relationship,” Jeongyeon said. She moved her slightly damaged leg. “And I think Christmas is a nice opportunity to bond with them and show them that - that - they are important.”

Nayeon’s thumb caressed the space under Jeongyeon’s eye, still searching her eyes for something. “Am I too enthusiastic?” Suddenly an insecurity crawled into her voice that Jeongyeon wanted to extinguish immediately. “Am I too clingy? Too needy? I know I can be.”

Jeongyeon shook her head, and had already started shaking it when Nayeon mentioned the first question. “No. No, no, you are - I know I tend to be reserved when the others are around but I’m all the more grateful that you aren’t deterred by that the slightest. I love you for that.”

Nayeon’s face immediately changed to a smile - not a smirk - as she leaned in, brushing her nose against Jeongyeon’s. “You love me?”

“I - yeah. I do. You know I do.” There was still a bit of shyness left, no matter how often Jeongyeon had mentioned it. But she said it anyway - because it was true. Because Nayeon needed reassurance. But mostly, because it was true. And because whenever she said it, the most important girl in her life smiled, the smile turning watery and vulnerable and disbelieving and so, so, so  _ happy _ .

So Jeongyeon said it, again and again, to overcome her own shyness and for Nayeon. And because it was true.

She thought about that dot on the map that Navely was inconspicuous about when Nayeon had to blow her nose, because she always cried when Jeongyeon said it too often.

Jeongyeon hoped that everything went well.

*

The Other Car parked in the backcourt of the residence and the first snow had covered everything lightly; it was a faint dust with colors still shining through, though muted. Jeongyeon got out and tried to take out their luggage from the boot of the car, balancing on one leg, but Nayeon shooed her away immediately. One of the doors leading to the inside opened and Jihyo stood there, packed up in a big, wooly pullover - Jeongyeon saw her right on time to note the happy smile.

She tried to hide it but it didn’t work very well. Especially when Nayeon harrumphed, stalked over and then hugged her so tightly that Jihyo was almost lifted off her feet.

“Grandma,” Jihyo greeted Nayeon.

“Tch.” Nayeon rolled her eyes and hugged her again, just for good measure, before helping Jeongyeon with the luggage and her crutches.

When Jeongyeon arrived by the door, her trolley in one hand, crutch in another, Jihyo smiled up at her and hugged her before she was able to say or do something. “Hey you.”

“Hey you,” Jeongyeon smiled against the side of her head. “It’s good to see you.”

“We’ve seen each other just one week ago,” Jihyo said, a smile in her voice.

“I usually see you every day, so one week is a lot.” She grinned and let go of one piece of luggage to wrap an arm around Jihyo’s midsection. They leaned back and regarded each other, before Jihyo ushered them inside.

Nayeon eyed her residence curiously as they shrugged out of their shoes and went down the corridor to the living room. “I see you have decorated,” she said.

“Sana and Dahyun brought a lot of stuff. Well. Mostly Sana, but we helped disperse it,” Jihyo said and before Jihyo could add anything else, Sana emerged from somewhere from the back of the house, being Christmas personified.

She wore a green sweater with knitted snowflakes on it, and red pants and a soft reindeer antler headband on her head. When she noticed who had arrived, she quickly searched her pockets for her red nose, put it on and then enthusiastically hugged the newcomers, her happy, bubbling laughter preceding her embrace. “Hi, you two! You finally made it!”

“Hey, you,” Nayeon said. “Thank you for preparing everything.”

Sana laughed harder, delighted. “Oh, please, it was my pleasure. I love Christmas!” Then she went on to hug Jeongyeon as well who just got over it - and who didn’t enjoy it at all,  _ no sir _ . “Dahyun’s in the kitchen - the second kitchen - and is making cookies. Turns out she’s pretty good at that. When are the remaining four coming?”

“Chaeyoung and Tzuyu will arrive later this evening - and Mina and Momo tomorrow,” Jeongyeon said. She snorted. “They’ll come by helicopter.”

“Of course they will!” Sana grinned, not tempted to make fun of them at all.

Dahyun entered the living room from the kitchen, covered in flour, her Santa Claus hat slightly askew atop of slightly messy locks. She rushed in and quickly hugged both Nayeon and Jeongyeon. “Sorry, cookies in the oven gotta go don’t want to burn them, okay bye!” And she was gone again.

“Alright,” Nayeon said. “Let’s change and then - maybe we can help somewhere.”

“Of course. Go, go,” Jihyo said and helped them carry their stuff towards the master bedroom.

When Nayeon took a shower, Jeongyeon took the opportunity to look around a bit, hobbling with one crutch. Sana had gone crazy with all the decorations: every bit of Christmas tradition that was available could be found in the house. There were socks above the fireplace, with their names stitched in, filled with sweets, a tree that was blinding in it’s assembled lights, there were stars on the windows, mistletoes that Jeongyeon avoided and she even found a spray can with reindeer fragrance.

Sana really loved Christmas.

And - the clincher was - the cats, the mechanical cats that all held a piece of the Navely security system, that roamed the house or slept on window sills or played with each other, as if they were real cats, all had necklaces made from green or red fabric, with a star or a bell or snowflake attached to them.

“It took her ages to catch them all,” Jihyo said as Jeongyeon knelt in front of one of them and caressed its robotic head. The creature produced a purr, its glowing, electrical-colored eyes blinking slowly, just like a real cat would.

In the kitchen, Sana was humming along to “ _ All I want for Christmas. _ ”

“What would we do without Sana?”

“Right? What would we do without Sana,” Jihyo smiled. “Hey, Jeongyeon. I have a question.”

The former bodyguard looked up. “Yes?”

“There has been a steady signal going out of this house - GPS, to be precise, from your cell phone,” Jihyo said, very lightly, and bit away a smile when she saw Jeongyeon comically freeze.

“Really?” Jeongyeon croaked. Then cleared her throat and said, more evenly: “Really?”

“Yeah. It was especially interesting, because did you know that our LaburiOS systems have a very particular kind of encryption and that signal uses exactly that encryption,” Jihyo continued lightly. “You wouldn’t know anything about it, would you?”

Jeongyeon wrestled with herself and didn’t quite know what to say.

“Chaeyoung stumbled over it. I would have rang all sorts of bells if Chaeyoung wouldn’t have told me you are responsible for it and that Mina is somehow involved as well?” Jihyo asked.

“It’s nothing bad,” Jeongyeon finally said. “It’s really nothing bad. It’s sort of a Christmas present for Nayeon.”

Jihyo leaned forward, intrigued. “A Christmas present for Nayeon that involves Mina?”

Jeongyeon nodded. “Yes, it’s - it’s - you’ll see what it is. You’ll probably be the first person to see it. It’s really nothing bad. It’s just that she’s so nosy and I wouldn’t mind with any other present except for this one.”

“Does it have something to do with the rubber duck?”

_ Just why was Jihyo so good with these kinds of things. _

“Kinda?” Jeongyeon croaked.

Jihyo stared at Jeongyeon for a long, silent moment and the more she looked, Jeongyeon felt as if Jihyo was able to lift the lid of her brain and look right inside. But finally, the other woman just smiled and leaned back. “I see.”

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you know what’s going on.”

“I have no idea what’s going on,” Jihyo said, her smile like a cat’s.

“I think you do and it’s making me nervous.”

“Why is it making you nervous?”

“Because it tempts me to ask all sorts of questions and - and I’m afraid I get scared when there's really nothing to be scared ab -  _ oh, for God’s sake _ ,” Jeongyeon said sharply when Jihyo’s smile grew in size and intensity.

Jihyo smiled and leaned over, one hand on one of Jeongyeon’s arms. “I assure you I have no idea what’s going on and if I had, I would tell you that everything is alright, that you know what you are doing and that Nayeon will like it no matter what.”

Jeongyeon stared.  _ Just how much did Jihyo know? How much could she assume and be right about it? _

“Thank you, Jihyo,” Jeongyeon breathed.

Jihyo winked at her and got up and before Jeongyeon could inquire further, Sana slid into the living room in large, oversized, fluffy green socks that had Christmas trees stitched on them. “The mail came - and look! There’s a card from one of your friends!”

She pressed a small, perfect envelope into Jeongyeon’s hands, and Jeongyeon cast a last glance at Jihyo, before eying the letter. It was addressed to her, her name and the address written in a nice, perfect font she had never seen before. The letter was rimmed with a red stripe and had silver snowflakes on its front. Two stickers were on it, a bear and a bunny.

That’s how Sana knew - because she knew more than she let on and there was only  _ one _ couple with that kind of combination.

She opened it and out came a card. Opening it, she smiled: Inside was a single polaroid that showed Kang Seulgi, wearing bear ears as headgear, holding the camera far away, her other arm wrapped around Irene, with bunny-shaped headgear, who was hugging her midsection. They both smiled brightly.

“ _ Merry Christmas _ ,” the card read. “ _ To you and yours the most wonderful holidays. Thank you, Jeong. _ ” It was signed with “ _ Irene & Seulgi _ ”.

Nayeon wrapped herself around Jeongyeon from behind, her chin on her shoulder. “They look happy together. As a matter of fact, I’ve never seen Irene this happy.”

“Yeah,” Jeongyeon breathed. “I’ve never seen Seulgi this happy.” She eyed the girl and pecked her cheek, wanting to say something, but couldn’t.

Nayeon, clueless, looked up at her, her eyes gleaming. “What is it?”

“Nothing, nothing.” Jeongyeon shook her head and Nayeon shrugged, about to let go. There was a moment, where they were in limbo, none touching the other, then Jeongyeon reached out and pulled the girl closer, against her side.

She could see the surprise on Nayeon’s face, because Jeongyeon didn’t touch her that often in public, only touched her when Nayeon initiated it, generally not a big skinship person. Jeongyeon brought her lips close to Nayeon’s ear. “I’ve never been this happy either.”

And Jeongyeon could tell that Nayeon was simply eating it up. There would be an aftermath to this later, in their bedroom all by themselves, but for now, Nayeon just rose to her tiptoes and kissed Jeongyeon’s cheek, then the corner of her lips. “Thanks, babe,” she said and it sounded superficially steady, but underneath it was a kind of shaky, overwhelmed affection that made Jeongyeon grin at her and wink.

Nayeon swatted her. “Don’t overdo it, I’ll have to behave the entire day!”

“I would suggest we build a snowman, but I’ve seen - I’ve seen your … art gallery outside,” Jeongyeon said, turning half to Sana in the door. Nayeon’s hand was still on Jeongyeon’s forearm, the thumb gently caressing her.

Six months ago, she would have shaken her arm off, out of embarrassment or shyness, but now, it felt good. Safe. Trusting.

Sana laughed. “It was mostly Dahyun, I just helped by shovelling around snow.”

“It looks like a huge snow monster devouring some snowmen,” Jeongyeon said slowly.

Dahyun’s head popped up in the door to the second kitchen. Her face was partially covered by flour and some sticky, white mass. “What. Not Christmas-y enough? Chaeyoung will like it.”

“Chaeyoung will not only like it but feel encouraged as well,” Jihyo pointed out.

Dahyun stepped into the doorframe, cleaning her hands with her apron. “That’s the beauty of it.”

“How are the cookies going, Dahyunie?” Jihyo asked.

Dahyun, in all her flour-messed-up glory smiled. “Wanna try one?”

Jihyo nodded enthusiastically and followed her and Sana into the kitchen. “I made a reconstruction of the house from cookies,” Dahyun said proudly. “Including the cats.”

Nayeon lingered behind, casting the kitchen a glance, before eying Jeongyeon. 

“Don’t you want to see the house?” Jeongyeon asked. “I know that building things is just down your alley, especially if you can eat them afterwards.”

“You were being cute earlier,” Nayeon said, slowly approaching.

Jeongyeon tried to be confident about it. “I’m always cute.”

The girl’s smile grew. “That’s true, but you were  _ especially _ cute earlier.”

“Do you have to point it out?” Jeongyeon asked, a part of her suffering already from Nayeon being so obvious, while the other part enjoyed her straightforwardness tremendously.

“I do,” Nayeon said. “And between looking at Dahyun’s house and potentially making out with you -”

“You are going to choose the right thing and go to Dahyun and tell her what a great job she did, because she looks up to you and you love her a lot,” Jeongyeon said.

Nayeon deflated visibly. “I hate you.”

“Liar.”

“For making me feel bad.”

“Liar.”

Jeongyeon smiled, then stepped closer, right into Nayeon’s personal bubble. Everything that made Nayeon, her scent, her warmth, her eyes that suddenly went wide. Jeongyeon brushed her nose against Nayeon’s and stole a tiny kiss. “Go and spend time with your friends,” Jeongyeon said, her voice gentle. “I’ll make it up to you later.”

“But what about you?”

“I’ll be there in a moment.”

Nayeon’s gaze remained lost in love, but also a bit questioning.

“I promise,” Jeongyeon said. “Go.”

Nayeon, after a kiss to both Jeongyeon’s nose and her lips, slowly managed to detach herself from Jeongyeon and with a last look after her shoulder, she disappeared in the kitchen. Jeongyeon watched her and when she was sure she was out of earshot, she took out her phone.

She checked the weather first. It would snow. For a white Christmas, one that Sana wished for, this was of course the best thing that could have possibly happened, but when Jeongyeon checked the map, she couldn’t help but worry.

Electrical devices usually didn’t work very well in low temperatures and from what the weather app told her, the next coming days were not only low temperatures but a real snow storm.

The Im Residence was probably the best spot on the planet to be snowed in; the house had enough food and water for weeks, was self-sufficient in case electricity broke down and had a connection to a satellite to ensure that there was internet at all times, but not every electrical device enjoyed being developed by one Im Nayeon.

Jeongyeon worried that the one time she actually trusted an electric gadget - apart from the Other Car or Navely - it would break down on her. That one time when it mattered.

She had to make a phone call.

After some time, Mina finally answered.

“Jeongyeon eonnie!” Mina laughed at her lively, quiet laughter. “How are you?”

“Hello, Mina. I’m fine, just fine. Erm - Mina …”

“Jeongyeon eonnie.” Her tone was kind and soothing. “What’s up? Did something happen?”

“No - I … we are going to have really bad weather around here and I’m a bit worried,” Jeongyeon said. “About - about -,” she lowered her voice. “You know, about the thing.”

“Hey, hey. Take a breath … inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Okay?”

Jeongyeon breathed, but her knuckles were white as she tightly grasped the cellphone. “I’m breathing, I’m breathing.”

“Okay. Let’s try to be rational, okay?”

“Okay.”

“What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

“It won’t work - my plan won’t work.”

“But your plan will work - if not on that day, then on any other day, Jeongyeon eonnie, you know that, right?”

“But I want it to happen on Christmas.” Jeongyeon didn’t want to sound petulant, but a bit of petulance remained in her voice nonetheless. “I planned it for Christmas.”

“I know, but eonnie - Nayeon will like it no matter what.”

Jeongyeon sighed. “I know. But she likes the kind of show-off style and I’m not quite able to do it the way she likes it.”

“And yet, she likes you, eonnie. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

“Okay … okay. Mina …”

“Hm?”

“If you were … her, you wouldn’t be … disappointed or anything, would you?” Jeongyeon asked. She tried not to sound too small, but didn’t succeed there either. “Please, think as Nayeon, not as Mina.”

There was a pause on the other side of the phone, then Mina … sighed? Shook her head? Jeongyeon couldn’t place the faint sound. Then: “Oh, eonnie. Of course I wouldn’t be disappointed. Nobody in their right mind would be disappointed. I guarantee you that.”

For some reason, Jeongyeon felt better. Not entirely, because the entire thing was such a large project that she had taken on, but she felt better. “Okay, okay. Thank you, Mina.”

“Anytime. Eonnie, no matter what happens - in the end, it will all be fine, I promise you.”

“Okay. Thank you,” she said again, unsure what else to say.

She could hear Mina’s smile. “Okay. I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Okay.” Then they ended the call and Jeongyeon remained standing in the middle of the living room. She inhaled, exhaled, and indeed felt a bit better.

Nayeon emerged from the kitchen, her face covered in flour. She held a half eaten cupcake in one hand and an untouched one in the other. “Was that Mina?”

“Yes.”

“When are they coming?”

“She didn’t say, she said soon,” Jeongyeon said.

She lifted the whole cupcake in her left hand. “I saved you one. I swear it’s a battlefield in there.”

“I bet you started it,” Jeongyeon said, taking the cupcake.

Nayeon smirked, snaking one arm around Jeongyeon’s midsection to drag her into the kitchen. “I would never,” she said and dragged her back into the circle of warmth and friendship.

Later on, much later, she found herself naked and exhausted in bed, Nayeon draped atop of her in the same state, but asleep.

She absentmindedly let her hand travel up and down and up and down Nayeon’s spine, knowing the movement soothed the other woman into sleep, while peeking at her cellphone.

The distance between a blinking dot and the place where she was located right now had shrunken down, but not enough. It would probably arrive tomorrow evening - punctual but in the middle of really bad, snowy weather. It worried Jeongyeon a lot.

Setting the cellphone down onto the charging plattform on the nightstand, she wrapped both of her arms around Nayeon’s smaller body and looked down at the girl in her hands. There was not much she could give her, she felt - at least when it came to materialistic things. Nayeon being a multi billionaire was something that Jeongyeon sometimes struggled with.

She had accepted it a long time ago and she was lucky that Nayeon valued many things because of their sentimental value or the time put into them and not because of what a wallet said. Yet, it sometimes made things difficult on the gifting front; and this particular gift for Christmas was really everything that Jeongyeon had to give.

And if it wouldn’t work, if it came too late …

She tried to remember Mina’s soothing words, but it didn’t work completely.

Nayeon, in her arms, stirred slightly, wriggling closer.

She stared at the woman, her soft brown hair falling into her face, her lips slightly parted, breathing evenly. Jeongyeon felt her wriggle a bit when her hand strayed to her lower back, then relaxed again when she drew figures between her shoulder blades.

Jeongyeon kissed the side of Nayeon’s face, then relaxed against her. It was one of the wonderful things that came in a relationship with Nayeon; whenever the smaller girl clung to her, Jeongyeon was easily able to fall asleep.

This time as well. Her eyes blinked towards sleep and her last thoughts were about how Nayeon made her so, so,  _ so _ happy and that she wanted to return some of that happiness.

She felt Nayeon snuggle against her throat and God - was there a happier person on the planet right now?

*

The missing couples - Mina and Momo and Tzuyu and Chaeyoung - arrived the next day, later than they were anticipated. Mina drove them in with a heavy landrover. The weather had worsened gradually and when Nayeon had opened the door for them, there was darkness first and falling snow like a wall. It looked like the TV screen when there was no channel selected.

Jeongyeon stood, leaning on one crutch, behind Nayeon, eying the darkness wearily. Then she took the huge flashlight by the door - under normal circumstances that light was enough to light up an entire stadium, but when Jeongyeon directed it at the darkness, it just became … darkness, with a singular beam of light hitting nothing of interest.

She wondered if it was helpful, as she lifted it up in the sky. It was a single index finger made from light - _ “Here! This is where you need to go!” _ \- but Jeongyeon had no idea if it was even visible in the night.

“Mina, Momo!” Nayeon screamed at the wind and the darkness.

No answer.

“I can’t see them either!” Jihyo’s voice sounded from somewhere from the back entrance.

“Navely,” Nayeon called out, blinking in the darkness. “Go. Look for them.”

Jeongyeon wondered for a moment what Nayeon was talking about, then she noticed movements from the inside of the house.

Four cats - larger than the others with bright green and blue eyes, painted black, hurried out into the darkness. It was a question of mere seconds and then they had disappeared in the night.

“What if they don’t come back?” Jeongyeon asked.

“I’ll find them in the morning. Each has a built in GPS. But they are made for these kinds of environments. Don’t worry,” Nayeon said. She stared out and a shiver ran through her body.

Jeongyeon stepped closer and wrapped an arm around her and the smaller girl gratefully leaned back. There was nothing outside, except snowy chaos. Jeongyeon wondered for a moment if they had misinterpreted Momo’s message about how close they were to the house.

Then, suddenly, some of the darkness moved. It took on a vaguely human-like shape, less dark, more like really-dark-gray-like-almost-black-but-not-quite. The human-like shape dragged another human-like shape … and another and another.

The closer they came to the house, the less black they became. They were definitely gray in front of the glaring white of the snow, illuminated by the residence’s light. The four cat-Navelys surrounded them, one left, one right, one leading the way and one behind them to make sure nobody got lost. Their eyes gleamed in the dark of the night.

When the first person came close enough for details, Jeongyeon recognized who it was.

It was Momo. Her coat was something large, something people would wear when they were exploring the North Pole. She didn’t walk, she waddled, the coat making her large like the Michelin woman, the color bright red. Large glasses sat on her nose, like for a space woman, and her gloves made her hands look like enormous claws. She also carried a huge backpack  _ and _ a bag.

She used those gloves to move her glasses up on her forehead. Her smile was wide and happy. “Hi,” Momo said and Jeongyeon couldn’t help but return it.

“Hi,” she said and both her and Nayeon dragged her in quickly.

Mina next - fake fur trimming her coat, she looked like a model, even in the worst of weathers. Delivering a short hug to both Nayeon and Jeongyeon, she passed them both. “The light signal was a good idea,” she said, as she dragged in her equally large backpack and more luggage.

Tzuyu was next. She seemed to grow out of the ground in the door and turned around, picking something up. For a moment, Jeongyeon thought it was a white barrel, but then it turned out it was Chaeyoung, covered in layers and layers of insulation.

“Hi,” Chaeyoung said.

Tzuyu sat Chaeyoung down onto the doorstep, then turned around and picked up a Chaeyoung-sized backpack and put it onto the doorstep as well. Chaeyoung picked it up and waddled inside with it. And then Tzuyu picked up - where she was storing them -  _ another _ Chaeyoung-sized backpack and sat it inside the house as well.

Then she ushered everyone inside and closed the door behind her.

Dragging back her hood, Jeongyeon noticed snowflakes clinging to her long eyelashes. Tzuyu shook them out with a quick movement of her hair. It looked for a moment like a L’Oreal commercial.

“It’s just so goddamn unfair,” Nayeon murmured.

Tzuyu looked at the girls watching her. She was entirely clueless. “What?”

“Nothing,” Nayeon grumbled. “Alright. Inside with you guys.”

“Boy, what kind of weather is that?” Momo started to shrug off her coat and wasn’t being very successful at that.

“Snow storm,” Mina said. She helped her girlfriend peel off her layers. “If not for the navigation system, we would have never found this place.” She nodded at the outside. “I parked the car - somewhere. Maybe you can try to help me search for it tomorrow. An assortment of socks is still in there. And pullovers.”

“I have stuff here at the house. It’s enough to survive a zombie apocalypse,” Nayeon said.

Chaeyoung eyed her. “The clothing you keep here.”

“Yes?”

“Are they ugly red Christmas sweaters?” Chaeyoung asked.

Nayeon grinned. “They are.”

Jeongyeon rolled her eyes. “They are.”

“God, I hate those,” Chaeyoung groaned.

Tzuyu stepped behind her, her hand only barely skimming her shoulder. “But you look so cute in them.”

It was quite impressive, Jeongyeon had to admit. Because Chaeyoung visibly deflated and then turned to Nayeon. “Just gimme the damn thing,” and Jeongyeon watched Tzuyu hide a smile the moment Chaeyoung turned back to her.

Momo seemed to have noticed too - and headlocked the smaller girl, ruining her haircut. “You are such a sucker for your girl.”

“And you are not?” Chaeyoung grumbled, trying to shake her off.

“I’m a different sucker for my girl,” Momo said and winked at Mina.

The girl blushed like a lovely flower. “You are impossible,” she said in her usual soft voice and Momo laughed, happily, then smirked, eying her girlfriend for a moment with the kind of hunger that made Jeongyeon want to flee the room. Momo’s expression dissipated quickly when Mina swatted her. “Where’s my bestie?”

Sana emerged from the kitchen carrying cupcakes. “I’m here, I’m -” But Momo sidestepped her and hugged Dahyun instead. 

Sana’s pout was probably meant to be threatening, but instead it just made the flour-covered girl cuter. “I don’t like you,” she said and tried to fight her off when Momo laughed and turned to hug her. “And - and - and you are annoying and -  _ put me down _ \- go hug Dahyun instead if she’s your best friend!”

Momo half dragged, half carried Sana into the living room, where they encountered Jihyo - also not exactly gifted in the heights department and Momo took full advantage of that. “Oh, you are here,  _ yah, put me down _ !”

“So you hug Jihyo instantly, but I, your best friend, am ignored!” Sana shrieked, but there was laughter in her voice.

Dahyun hugged Mina, then Tzuyu and Chaeyoung. “Want to try some of my cupcakes? They are pretty awesome, if I may say so myself.”

Jeongyeon watched the third youngest drag the other younger ones into the kitchen, while Momo was happily buried under Jihyo and Sana who pretended to still be mad at her best friend. Jeongyeon loved being alone with Nayeon, loved quiet and calm, but the appearance of her friends reminded her why she loved them so much.

Nayeon nudged her with her elbow. “Happy?”

“Happy,” Jeongyeon said and grinned, then with a start, pulled her close and pecked her cheek. “Happiest.”

Nayeon laughed, her arms moving around Jeongyeon, one leg trying to wrap itself around her leg, while Jeongyeon leaned on her cane.

“How are we able to move like this?”

“We are not.”

“We are not?” Jeongyeon asked.

“No. We have to stay here, forevermore, together - or until one of us gets hungry,” Nayeon declared.

“I see.” Jeongyeon smiled, eying her, then tried to crouch with Nayeon still attached to her. “There are worse ways to die.”

The day went on with Nayeon happily attached to Jeongyeon’s back and later to her side. With baking and cooking and food and with Sana’s happy bubbling laughter and Mina’s warm smiles, with someone always being attached to Jihyo, making sure she didn’t feel alone, with Dahyun and Chaeyoung singing terribly bad along to Christmas carols as they put decorations on the tree with a huge mountain of presents starting to build next to it.

It was the kind of day Jeongyeon loved. Quiet and warm and full of the affection of friends, hidden away from the world and covered by snow. It was almost mythical in its quiet, warm light, in the voices that called to her heart from the end of a long corridor, of Nayeon, gentle and soft against her side, her laughter tickling against her ear as she watched Tzuyu being wrapped up in every scarf the house had to offer.

Later on she sat on her bed - and opened her cellphone. Navely appeared and its face was … worried.

Jeongyeon opened the app and the map came up. The dot - the far away dot that she had been hoping for so much didn’t move anymore. It blinked, red, in a field, around three kilometres away from the village.

Jeongyeon cursed. “It crashed?”

Navely’s voice was low. “It did, my princess. I’m very sorry.”

“Tomorrow is Christmas. It was supposed to arrive in the morning, just punctual for the opening of presents!”

“I know, love of my life,” Navely said. “The cold and the storm were just too much. I’m very sorry.”

Jeongyeon cursed again and was about to say something else, when the door opened from the bathroom and Nayeon stepped into the room. Her hair was a tousled mess atop of her head and she was wearing glasses - and a short, striped blue pair of pajamas.

Jeongyeon clicked her cellphone shut.

“I’ve found your lost sock,” Nayeon announced. She placed it onto the nightstand next to its partner, then turned to eye Jeongyeon. “I’m really good at finding things, don’t you think?”

Jeongyeon managed to avoid a pause only just. “You are.”

“You got it.” Nayeon grinned and shot her finger guns and a wink, before picking up a bottle of lotion. She made her way over to the bed and easily straddled Jeongyeon’s lap, before unplugging the bottle with a plopping sound.

The scent immediately crept into Jeongyeon’s nose and she felt herself reminded of the girl. It was a scent so strongly attached to Nayeon as a person, it almost hurt. The girl squeezed some on her hand and made Jeongyeon hold the bottle, then lathered it all over her hands and her arms, massaging it into her skin.

Jeongyeon watched her for a moment, before setting the bottle down on the bed and grasping one of Nayeon’s hands in her own.

“What are you doing?” Nayeon asked, but Jeongyeon just shrugged and started to massage the liquid into Nayeon’s palm, up to her wrist and into her forearms.

“Nothing,” Jeongyeon said. “It’s just - nothing.”

Nayeon reached out to cup Jeongyeon’s face. “Just nothing?”

Jeongyeon swallowed heavily. “Yeah - just … I …” She looked down at Nayeon’s hand and held on to it, before lifting it up to her lips to kiss it. “I - I want to give you everything.”

Nayeon’s smile remained, but a tinge of worry was added to it. “Are you alright?”

Jeongyeon nodded, silently, then pecked the pads of her fingers, one after the other, then the palm and finally craned to kiss her lips. It started slow, one stroke after the other against Nayeon’s lips, then the other woman caught fire and pressed against Jeongyeon, nudging back, whining when Jeongyeon didn’t part her lips fast enough.

It wasn’t necessary but Jeongyeon’s hand went from Nayeon’s side to the curve of her back, holding her close, even though she knew Nayeon had no intention of going anywhere. She lifted herself from Jeongyeon’s lap, her weight on her knees and shins, as she held her face between her hands, her tongue stroking against Jeongyeon’s, who had to tip back her head just to accommodate.

The snow outside and the house and the room made up for nothing else but layers that were wrapped around their little world, the warmth pulsing between them like a being that had come to life, created by their love for each other. The intimacy that had sent Jeongyeon running not even a year ago was now something she yearned for. Nayeon had seeped into her very being, each nook and cranny of her soul like a healing, assuring balm, never letting go.

She made Jeongyeon’s heart thrum for her, vibrate and hum and caused her a kind of possessiveness Jeongyeon didn’t know was possible to feel. Her absence was sometimes painful - and her presence was so much that Jeongyeon didn’t know how to handle it at times.

But Nayeon knew - somehow - and took care of her, took care of her yearning, answered with as much passionate need that Jeongyeon felt nervous and reassured at the same time.

Jeongyeon was never the kind of person to be loud - especially not when it came to affection. She was one of silent yearning, of quiet want, but Nayeon could easily pull sound out of her, like red, glowing strings.

So when Jeongyeon groaned - a deep, short sound, Nayeon, her lips pressed against Jeongyeon’s ear, nibbling her way around the delicate shell, smirked. Jeongyeon could feel it.

There was no denying that Nayeon wasn’t affected as well - her breathing went quick and was warm and moist against Jeongyeon’s ear - but she would go first and enjoy it, enjoy making Jeongyeon squirm and cling to her and maybe coax another sound out of her.

She leaned back and Jeongyeon chased after her - but then Jeongyeon felt her hands clawing into her white shirt, pulling it upwards, over her head and away and Jeongyeon did the same for her.

Their undershirts followed and God, the other girl was pretty. Soft skin, a mole nobody but Jeongyeon knew was there and like this, with Nayeon on her knees, hovering over her thighs, she had just the right height to lean forward and -

Nayeon grasped her chin and made her look up. “Eyes up, sailor,” she whispered and before Jeongyeon could say something, licked her way into her mouth. The taste was warm and overwhelming and made Jeongyeon crave for more and suddenly it was all tongues, and bites and teeth, Jeongyeon’s fingers digging into Nayeon’s back.

She could feel the girl over her move a hand, down her shoulder like a butterfly, lower and lower, down her stomach to her hip bone to her thighs. A tightness settled just below Jeongyeon’s navel and it gained traction so quick that she gasped into their kiss, another groan escaping her. If anything, it spurned Nayeon on and a sharp bite to Jeongyeon’s lower lip made her gasp once more.

The hand moved lower and lower, one finger finding the entrance and clear evidence about how excited Jeongyeon was. The remaining hand on Jeongyeon’s chin tightened, the kisses smaller, shorter, then she nudged her nose against Jeongyeon’s and looked at her.

Jeongyeon wondered sometimes if this wish of Nayeon watching Jeongyeon while she did things to her stemmed from her profession as an inventor: She always looked at what she was doing, what she was making, and observed it with happy, thorough satisfaction - and whenever they were like this, it was the same happy fascination when she did work with her hands and watched the result form in front of her eyes.

She watched now as well - her lips parted, their breath mingling, as her index finger found the entrance and pushed forward easily, courtesy of Jeongyeon’s excitement. Jeongyeon pressed her eyes shut - the surge of pleasure was too much for a moment - then gasped once more when the finger went in deeper and Nayeon dropped gentle kisses on her cheeks and nose, before pressing her forehead against Jeongyeon’s. She could feel her breathing going faster when Nayeon moved her hand and this time her fingers pressed into Nayeon’s back, creating long, red lines there, holding on to her, clawing at her when she moved her hand and then curled the finger - and it was exactly where it needed to be, exactly pressing against that small patch where Jeongyeon liked it most - and Jeongyeon felt herself gasp again, followed by a groan as she lifted her hips against Nayeon’s hips …

“It’s okay, babe,” the other girl whispered, her hand moving, more kisses against Jeongyeon’s cheek and ear, as Jeongyeon buried her face against Nayeon’s shoulder, heavily panting.

“I’m - just a bit - just - just -”

The girl moved and pressed down and there was a flick with her thumb against that bundle of nerves and Jeongyeon’s grasp around her girlfriend became tight, probably painful, and stiff, as she cried out silently, her teeth pressed against Nayeon’s shoulder. The feeling inside her imploded harshly, took her over, like a wave, as she bucked her hips up again and once more, her feelings overflowing …

… and then she relaxed, slumping forward, breathing harshly.

There would probably be a kind of bite mark on Nayeon’s shoulder after she let go.

Nayeon held on to her, a warm smile against her cheek, the hand on her jaw moving to the back of her neck, a thumb drawing soft circles there.

“Good?”

“We haven’t even got rid of our clothes properly,” Jeongyeon mumbled against Nayeon’s shoulder.

Nayeon wouldn’t let her change the topic. “Good?”

Jeongyeon looked up, her fringe falling into her eyes, her cheeks flushed, a bit embarrassing there and a lot of affection. “Good.” She paused and then stole a quick kiss that Nayeon caught and stretched to a string of smaller kisses, smiling against Jeongyeon’s kiss. “I love you,” Jeongyeon said and it still sounded a bit shy and sheepish, but the words grew stronger with each time Jeongyeon managed to say them aloud.

“I know,” Nayeon said, pushing the fringe away. She smiled and like so often, there was a bit of wetness in her eyes whenever Jeongyeon admitted to the depth of their feelings for each other. “I love you too.”

Jeongyeon grinned and pecked her soundly and grinned wider, then her arms went around Nayeon’s midsection and lifted her up to turn them and bury the smaller girl under her.

Nayeon protested and giggled and then laughed, her cackling laughter, as her hands crossed behind Jeongyeon’s neck. “Be gentle,” she teased and her smirk made something happy and elated in Jeongyeon’s chest burst.

“I’m always gentle,” Jeongyeon said, her kiss almost carefully set onto Nayeon’s lips. “Because I love you,” another kiss to Nayeon’s ear. “And because you are the most incredible thing in my life,” the last went to Nayeon’s forehead and the smirk was wiped away and Nayeon was ready to cry.

“Ah, really,” she mumbled and was about to say something else, but then Jeongyeon started to undress her, her shorts and her panties with determination and a lot of affection and drew the blanket over both of them and then there was nothing else but gentle, exploring hands and lips against Nayeon’s skin and whispered sweet nothings against her ear.

*

It was around half an hour before midnight when Nayeon had fallen asleep, exhausted and covered with love bites. Jeongyeon had made a point to exhaust her thoroughly and to make sure she knew how much she was loved - and after the fourth time, Nayeon had bitten Jeongyeon’s shoulder hard and then all muscle tension had left her. She had been nothing more than an exhausted heap of happiness after and despite her best attempts of staying awake, she hadn’t been able to.

Jeongyeon, however, was very awake.

It sometimes did this to her - making love to Nayeon made her alive, awake and energized, like a pitcher of coffee.

She looked over - Nayeon was sleeping, her skin glowing where a bit of moon touched it, her face turned towards Jeongyeon, cheeks blushed, lips full and well-kissed, one hand slightly stretched out towards her.

The blanket covered her lower back and Jeongyeon reached out and followed the lines of her shoulder, her back, her spine. Nayeon sighed and tried to move closer, mumbling softly.

She was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen in her life - every day, in the morning with messy hair and her grumpy morning personality on full display and during the day, perfect and wonderful, and every evening, fresh from the bathroom, looking in a way only Jeongyeon could see, bare of all make-up, seeming so young, her smile so bright, her laughter always loud and colored with reckless abandon.

Jeongyeon reached over her to the nightstand and picked up her phone.

The map - of course - hadn’t changed. There was still a dot, red and blinking, not far away, but crashed.

For a moment, she considered her options. Remembered the stack of presents under the over-decorated Christmas tree in the living room, how everyone would get their presents, how she had prepared this specifically for Nayeon, had picked it, had hidden it.

And now, it lay covered with snow around four kilometres outside of the Im Residence.

She let her phone sink and stared at the sleeping girl once more.

“You deserve everything, every happiness in the world,” Jeongyeon whispered and leaned down to kiss the highest point of her shoulder. Then she moved the blankets around sleeping Nayeon, making sure she was safe and warm, before swinging her own legs out of the bed.

She found and put on her underwear. And long thermos leggings and a thermos shirt and a wind repellant top and pants and insulation layers and finally a hard shell jacket along with pants. She had to squeeze into the heavy boots with her woolen socks and put on the mask to protect her face from the cold.

Last was a scarf and the cane. It was Nayeon’s scarf and it smelled like her, like her perfume, like her distinct smell. She wrapped it around her face - and a bit crept into her nose. It made her feel at ease instantly.

Navely came to life when she was about to open the main door.

“Are you going to get what was lost in the snow, hotshot?” Navely asked, her green happy face covering the entirety of the screen of Jeongyeon’s cell phone.

“Yeah,” Jeongyeon said. “I - yes.”

“It’s dangerous to go alone,” Navely said. “Take me.”

Jeongyeon wasn’t quite sure what the AI meant, then, she noticed a movement in the corner of her eye and turned. Out of the darkness, another darkness peeled itself from. It was a black cat, made from metal with the same green-ish kind of color to its eyes that Navely usually sported.

It was a bit larger than the other cats that guarded the house, but innately beautiful, just like them.

“Please, love of my life, try to be careful.”

“I’m always careful,” Jeongyeon said. She pulled the mask over her face. “Here we go.”

She opened the door - and the cold was like a fist in her face, robbing her of all breath. She inhaled and then stepped outside. It was a dry cold that tried to grind down and scrape at any skin that it could reach. Jeongyeon brandished her enormous flashlight then started walking.

The snow crunched under her feet - and after a moment, she felt something push against her back and then a weight on her shoulder.

The Navely cat had climbed her and balanced on her shoulder. Her leg stung for a moment, but Jeongyeon bit the feeling away. She looked up at the cat, then looked at her phone. It directed her towards the field to the Northwest; supposedly it had crashed somewhere in the middle of it.

She made her way towards the street leading away from the house. The streetlamps flickered, as if each of them was shaking in the cold. Their singular feets were buried in snow that reached up to Jeongyeon’s shin. It made walking hard - she had to push against the snow, which got caught by her feet, made them heavy.

Jeongyeon swung her flashlight around - and the world looked only vaguely like itself. It was white. All sharp edges were gone, covered by a white, immaculate blanket. Everything had softened - both in shape and in sound and she could only faintly hear the snow falling.

It was like feathers descending and then melting with the ground. It had its own particular charm, Jeongyeon knew, but at the moment, she just wanted to get to the dot on her map, pick up the thing and get back to the residence before it was morning and anyone even noticed that she was gone.

When she stepped towards the field, half expecting the ground to be located at the same spot the street was located, it surprised her that the snow apparently had filled up some sort of large ridge between street and field. She stumbled forward and pain shot up her leg.

She found herself suddenly stuck in snow that reached up to her hips.

“Goddammit,” she cursed and waded forward, Navely Cat clinging tightly to her.

The ground was frozen in a way that at least there was not going to be any mud clinging to her feet, but the snow seemed to stick everywhere and when she made her way out of the ridge dividing street and field, she felt like the lower part of her body had transformed into a snowwoman.

Thankfully the snow retained its original height - shin-height - in the field and she made her way forward.

“God, I swear, Navely, if she doesn’t like that stupid thing, I’m gonna - I’m gonna -” Navely looked at her interested, prodding her to go on. “I’m probably not going to do anything, but I’m going to be devastated.”

Navely chuckled and then there was a muffled sound coming out of some hidden speaker, as the artificial animal scrolled through some radio channels.

Suddenly, IU’s clear voice resounded through the snowy night before Christmas morning.

_ “Just wait, _ ” she sang, her voice pristine, crystal clear and even more so under the stars hidden by the clouds. “ _ When we finally meet. We can stand outside the borders of time. _ ”

Jeongyeon shook her head immediately. “Maybe something a bit more upbeat?”

The channel was changed again. “ _ Red flavor! I’m curious, honey! _ ” it rang out.

“It’s a summer song - a summer song! Maybe something more … season appropriate? And also quieter. We are still close to the village,” Jeongyeon was quick to interrupt the cat’s concert. She tried to ignore the pain. This was not good.

Navely Cat looked at her, expectantly, then looked back. Jeongyeon followed her glance - and to her surprise the village was already far away; only the faint lights of the shivering street lamps were visible.

The music changed to something vague and gentle; Jeongyeon couldn’t place what it was.

As she trudged onwards with Navely Cat purring into her ear, the world around her started to turn white and quiet. It was a stark contrast to that night in the rain where she had made her way towards the Im Residence for the first time: soaked, desperate and determined to win Nayeon.

This time, her life was much happier, much brighter; but there was still something she wanted to give Nayeon and she realized that this thing made her do the stupidest things.

Like leaving the house at night in winter, with temperatures way below zero, the cold poking at her skin like a thousand needles, her leg injured, just because she wanted Nayeon to have the perfect Christmas present.

A part of her had to admit: It wasn’t solely Nayeon’s Christmas present. It was something for her as well.

“Do you think this is a bad idea?” Jeongyeon asked after a while. Her feet felt terribly heavy and when she looked down, she could see how the snow clung to them. She tried to shake parts of it off, but only with mediocre success.

Navely shrugged. The radio channel changed to a song and someone crooned:  _ “Fools rush in where angels dare to thread, _ ” and Jeongyeon rolled her eyes.

“I guess. But I feel - I feel, since I was the one who was slow, who ran from her and who was … how did Jihyo call it?”

The channels changed again, sounds a salad of white noise, screeches and voices cut short so quickly that Jeongyeon couldn’t even identify the language, then Navely Cat tuned in to one of Jihyo’s rants, well preserved on Jeongyeon’s mailbox:

“ _ You are the most emotionally stunted iceblock of a person I have ever met! _ ” Jihyo proclaimed angrily and weirdly enough, it made Jeongyeon love Jihyo, their large sense of reason packaged in a small person, even more.

“I guess I am. I’m getting better though, no?” Jeongyeon asked.

Navely Cat stayed quiet for a while, then she turned through the channels once more. It was weird that Nayeon hadn’t given her a voice as a cat - that only the Laburi on her cellphone had one and only when it was connected to the main network.

It went through the channels again and then Sana’s voice popped up. “J _ eongyeon-ah! _ ” she crooned, followed by her bubbling laughter. It was a voice message from years ago when she didn't know them that well. When she had only known Nayeon well. “ _ Thank you for fixing my car! You didn’t have to do that! Let Dahyun and me treat you to dinner for that! _ ”

The voice changed again. Dahyun this time. “ _ It was nice having you over, you know? _ ” Dahyun paused and then quickly added. “ _ You aren’t as scary as I thought you were! Okay, bye! _ ”

She remembered carrying Dahyun that year to the car when the girl had caught a bad, bad influenza - and afterwards, Dahyun had started clinging to her, like to Chaeyoung or Jihyo or Mina.

“ _ Jeongyeon-hyung. _ ” Chaeyoung’s voice. “ _ I’ll beat your sorry ass in League of Legends. Just so you know. _ ”

“ _ Jeongyeon-ah. _ ” The voice was soft and gentle and vaguely amused. Mina. “ _ I’ll beat both of you in League of Legends. _ ”

There was some rustling, then: “ _ If you beat my girlfriend _ ,” Momo declared, her voice suddenly closer to the mic. “ _ Then I dare you to eat anything at the Im Tower! _ ” Mina’s soft laughter, Momo’s insistence.

“ _ Jeongyeon eonnie. _ ” The voice had changed to Tzuyu’s, her pronouncing every word with intention, making sure she got it right. “ _ I appreciate you trying to cook for me and Chaeng, more specifically the bacon tsunami, but she really has to look after her cholesterol, given that she eats a cheeseburger at the Im Cafeteria they named after her. That being said, _ ” she lowered her voice. “ _ That bacon tsunami was incredible. Please do inform me when you prepare it once more. _ ” How Tzuyu made it sound like they were still talking about accounting was beyond Jeongyeon.

Jeongyeon knew who was last - who Navely would play last. In a way, it was the hardest one of them all to convince, because she loved Nayeon the most.

Jihyo’s voice was crisp and clear and completely undecipherable. “ _ Nayeon complained today about you. She said you dragged her out of the Tokyo Tower, stuffed her in a car, head first, drove you to the hotel while completely disregarding her orders and personal opinion on her, I quote, ‘situation’ and she demands you to be fired, beheaded and cursed for three generations to come. Not necessarily in that order. _ ” Jihyo paused, then said: “ _ Well done, Yoo Jeongyeon. _ ”

She got a raise after that.

Jeongyeon continued trudging through the snow, a faint smile on her lips. “Thank you, Navely.”

The Navely Cat pushed her head against Jeongyeon’s head and Jeongyeon grinned. “Yeah. That was a good day.”

She felt better after that, more relaxed and happier. It didn’t change the fact that it was still extremely cold - and that she started to feel stiff and that her nose started to hurt. The wind blew harder and more snowflakes started to fall and Jeongyeon realized she had to hurry.

When she turned to look back at the village, there were some faint lights making the darkness less dark, but that was it. She was somewhere in the middle of white nothingness. A glance at her cellphone told her, however, that she was close.

It had to be somewhere - anywhere - and then she just had to find it, peel it out, go back and nobody would even notice. A part of her realized that she would be in lots of trouble if they found out that she did this. Despite the fact that she was an adult who was able to make her own decisions, the others didn’t seem to accept this when it came to irresponsibility.

Nayeon often bore the brunt of complaints when she did something stupid. Sana, sometimes, and Momo occasionally. Jeongyeon’s occupation as a bodyguard had been well-accepted, but her wish to nurture a hobby like bungee jumping hadn’t.

She pushed the thought away and looked around, the beam of her flashlight wandering over the white of the fields.

Nothing. Nothing. Just -

The light outlined the chaotic, black shapes in the white snow. They looked like someone had dropped a Christmas bauble: an irregular shaped star amidst the whiteness.

Jeongyeon hurried closer, the snow crunching harder under her feet, hoping that this was it, that everything was still there.

She found the three of the four propellers and the body of the drone. It said Myoui Foods - Pizza Delivery. There was a simplistic drawing of Mina on the splattered body, her thumb and index finger forming a V that she had pressed under her chin.

“Thanks, Mina,” Jeongyeon whispered and then removed the broken-off top part of the drone. Inside was enough space for six pizza boxes, but Jeongyeon had not ordered a pizza. Inside was a cushioning material, and a small box.

She quickly took it out and pushed it inside her jacket. Then turned around. “We have to go back, Navely,” she breathed into the cold - and it seemed like the air froze the moment it escaped her lips. As she moved, she suddenly felt heavy.

It was easy to find the way back - she only had to follow her own steps in the snow, but the wind seemed to blow relentlessly into her face. Suddenly each step was heavy, exhausting and the thing inside her jacket felt like a block of ice. It hadn’t been a good idea to keep it inside her jacket - but then again, Jeongyeon couldn’t help but keep it close to her heart.

She made her way through the field, Navely Cat by her side, following her, and then, not even a hundred metres away from the street and the shivering lampposts, she fell for the first time, despite leaning heavily on her cane. Her limbs felt so frozen, so heavy, that she wasn’t able to lift them to cushion her fall somewhat.

Face first, she kissed the snow - and came to the realization that cold, hard snow hurt. Quite a lot. She tried to lift herself up and felt suddenly terribly cold. It had crept into her bones and seeped into her flesh and around her, the wind was howling, circling her like a pack of animals.

Her leg hurt. As did her elbow.

She cursed softly and looked up. Navely looked at her with her blue electric eyes. The seams of her black body seemed to glow.

“Navely,” she whispered. “I can’t get up.”

Navely paced in front of her, up and down, up and down, as Jeongyeon tried to roll onto her back, feeling like a turtle, trying to get to her feet.

“ _ I swear, Yoo Jeongyeon! _ ”

Jeongyeon froze.

That voice. Did Navely project it?

“ _ Yoo Jeongyeon! _ ” it said again. Angrily so. But a bit sleepy.

Jeongyeon craned her neck.

Navely moved around her, her mouth slightly opened. Her eyes glowed with every word, as Nayeon’s voice repeated: “ _ Sneaking out of the house for God knows what! Injuring yourself! Being injured! _ ”

It was not a recording.

“ _ It’s winter, goddammit! It has minus degrees! What on Earth were you thinking? _ ”

“Just … to go there and back again?” Jeongyeon suggested weakly. She managed to sit up, but sharp pain shot up her leg. “I’m already close to the village; if it’s not too much of an inconvenience, could you pick me up?”

Nayeon growled.

“Since you are awake anyway?” Jeongyeon added.

“ _ Oh, I will pick you up. To kill you! _ ” the other woman seethed. A string of curse words followed. “ _ Why did you even leave the house? _ ”

Jeongyeon didn’t answer, because - because the answer was probably stupid and … and stupid. She had a good reason, but … she wasn’t sure if Nayeon would consider it a good reason.

Jeongyeon sighed. “Just come and get me, okay?”

She didn’t feel that well, her foot the only warm thing in her body and it wasn’t the good kind of warmth. She felt herself fall back against the snow that hadn’t been stomped into the ground yet and that was soft and looked up at the sky. It was mostly dark, but snowflakes came falling down - and after a while, she felt like she was falling upwards.

The sight above her was hypnotic.

“I love Nayeon,” she told Navely Cat. “She turns me into a complete idiot. Do you think that’s good?”

The cat produced a harumpfing sound and continued pacing. “ _ Of course it’s good, if you don’t forget how to use your brain. _ ”

Jeongyeon looked up, half expecting the voice coming from the cat, but then she heard steps and then someone bend over her. “ _ You are a fool, Yoo Jeongyeon. A cute, wonderful, lovable fool, but a fool nonetheless. _ ” Someone took her arm and dragged her up into a sitting position.

“But I’m your fool,” Jeongyeon said.

Nayeon eyed her, suddenly there, her anger palpable. “Don’t try to be cute. You are seriously an idiot and I hope - _ really hope _ \- you have a good explanation for this stunt. Mina won’t talk.”

Jeongyeon looked past Nayeon to the street. Mina’s huge jeep had parked there, large chains around the tires to fight the snow. She was getting out, and Momo already was, stumping over, wrapped in an oversized parka. She leaned over as well, a smirk in her eyes.

“Hello, hotshot,” she said, teasing, and when Nayeon dragged her to her feet, Momo pulled at Jeongyeon’s other arm.

Momo knew. Of course she knew. She and Mina had no secrets from each other.

“Got what you came for?” Momo asked.

Jeongyeon groaned as the two of them helped her towards the jeep. “Yeah, I did.”

They half pushed, half hoisted her into that backseat and Mina, behind the steering wheel turned to look back at Nayeon clinging to Jeongyeon, while Momo slid into the passenger seat.

“You guys okay?”

Nayeon nodded. “I will kill her, but she’s fine.”

Mina nodded. “Great. Let’s go.”

The huge tank of a car started to move forward and Jeongyeon felt herself fall against her girlfriend, who had an arm around her. She didn’t remember when but after some rustling, she felt the skin of Nayeon’s cheek under her nose. The girl shot her a strict glance but didn’t tell her off.

She was so warm, so soft …

… and the thing packed into her jacket didn’t feel cold anymore. Everything felt warm.

And it was enough for Jeongyeon to finally fall asleep.

*

She woke up later in their bed in the master bedroom. Outside, the sky was clear and blue, the snow still covered everything. The cherry tree in the middle of the house was covered over and over with snow and reminded Jeongyeon of an enormous cauliflower.

Jeongyeon didn’t like cauliflower but that tree looked pretty, she decided.

Someone had wrapped her up into three layers of blankets. Her leg throbbed slightly and she could feel the stuffiness of a bandage there.

She looked around. There were fresh clothes on the chair by the door. Someone had put an air infuser into the room that huffed and puffed small clouds of steam. And the box, the thing she had gotten out of Mina’s drone sat on the nearest nightstand next to her. Untouched. There was an electronic lock on it.

She wondered how long she had been out. Technically she hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep the last night - or at least the last night she remembered.

Outside, she could hear faint voices talking - and then, when she decided that it might be a good idea to get up, to check what was going on, the door opened and Nayeon entered. Her face was bare - and she was wearing jogging pants and a sweatshirt.

In her hands she held a small tray with a cup of tea. “Oh. You are awake.”

“Yeah,” Jeongyeon said, hoarsely.

Nayeon set down the tray on the nightstand, purposely ignoring the box there. “How are you feeling?” Her voice was a bit sharp, her words a bit clipped.

Jeongyeon sat herself up and the girl plopped onto the bed, clearly angry, but still helped her, fluffing up her pillows.

“Tired, but well.”

“Really. You are feeling well?”

“Are you going to scream at me?”

This time Nayeon looked at her and paused, her eyes still sharp. “I want to, but the doc said I should give you time to recuperate first. But I really, really want to scream at you.”

“I know.”

“I loved having you as my bodyguard, don’t get me wrong, but when I fired you -”

“When I retired,” Jeongyeon quickly corrected her.

“When you stopped working as a bodyguard, I was relieved that I didn’t have to watch you throw yourself between me and danger, you know? And what do you do first opportunity? Leave the house during a snowstorm in the middle of the night in the icy cold, injured, to do God knows what.”

“I had a good reason.”

“No reason is good enough to compromise your health, Jeongyeon. No reason at all!”

“It’s a unique thing, kind of, and it was something I really, really needed to do.” When Nayeon scowled at her, Jeongyeon took a deep sigh. She knew Nayeon was right, but … “I’m never going to do it again. It will be the last time ever. I promise. And. I’m very sorry to have worried you.”

Nayeon eyed her, anger still simmering inside her. “I really, really, really want to scream at you. Holler even. Because that - that was really stupid.”

“Don’t you want to know why I did it?”

Nayeon again kept silent, eying her, searching something in her face. “I don’t know. I’m afraid it might make me even angrier.”

Jeongyeon rolled the suggestion a few times through her thoughts and out came: “That might be, actually. But I still think,” she sat herself up further and Nayeon pulled another pillow close so she could sit up properly. “That it might be worth it.”

“You are impossible. You are really, truly impossible,” Nayeon grumbled.

Jeongyeon tensed her muscles for a long moment, shaking off a certain stiffness, then reached over to the nightstand. “Come here.”

“I tried to open it,” Nayeon said, eying the box like it had committed a war crime.

Jeongyeon tugged at her arm. “Come here.”

The girl sank down onto the bed side and Jeongyeon tugged again, until her legs were on the blanket; Jeongyeon tugged again and Nayeon sighed, impatient, and turned towards her girlfriend and finally slid closer when Jeongyeon tugged once more.

“Remember when you found the yellow rubber duck on top of the wardrobe?”

Nayeon looked up from the box that was balancing on Jeongyeon’s stomach and eyed her girlfriend as if she had lost her mind. “Yes …?”

“And - remember when you found that small Navely plushie in my old slippers?” Jeongyeon asked.

Nayeon narrowed her eyes. “Is this related to this box?”

“Very much so,” Jeongyeon said.

“Then yes. I remember.”

“And - remember my old Iphone was buried in our sock drawer?”

“I do. Jeongyeon -”

Jeongyeon reached out and typed in a string of numbers into the box. The top of it clicked and then opened, like a flower. “Yeah … I knew … if I would hide this … in between my socks or in my old slippers that I’m never using or on the wardrobe, you would immediately find it.”

Nayeon looked at her, her eyes still narrowed, but Jeongyeon could tell that it took her some effort to keep that critical look on her face. “You are not making any sense.”

But Jeongyeon knew that Nayeon was lying: That Jeongyeon made sense and Nayeon knew what kind of sense it was that Jeongyeon made and that she tried to push it away, because if Nayeon’s assumption was false, then Nayeon would be devastated for weeks, months to come.

“So.” Jeongyeon pulled out a variety of tissues that she had used to stuff into the larger box so the smaller box - ivory, velvet, palm-sized - would not move around.

“You are not making any sense,” Nayeon said and this time, her voice was shaking, and was watery.

Jeongyeon set the larger box aside and took the ivory one and set it higher onto her chest, just below her clavicle, then crossed her hand on her stomach and looked at the tiny thing.

Nayeon had frozen the moment she saw it.

They both stared at it. Nayeon was ready to bawl. “The idea was,” Jeongyeon continued lightly, belying the storm of emotions and anticipations that were raging inside her chest. “-that I had one of Mina’s drones ship it here and that it would arrive just in time for Christmas, but then there was such bad weather and it crashed and I went to pick it up, so it would be here - just in time for Christmas morning to open it.”

Nayeon sniffled, then she punched Jeongyeon’s shoulder. Not very hard but hard enough to convey her absolute frustration with the other woman.

“Don’t you want to open it?”

A sob escaped her. “Jeongyeon -”

Jeongyeon leaned in and pecked the side of her face, just below her temple. “Open it, come on. You can be mad at me afterwards.”

Nayeon punched her again, but it lacked all strength. “How can I be mad at you now?” And Jeongyeon knew that Nayeon was thoroughly capable of being mad at her for not being able to be mad at her.

Nayeon took the box with both hands, held it and then flicked it open. Another frustrated, elated, happy whine escaped her and for a moment, she covered her eyes with one hand, overwhelmed by emotions.

It was an engagement ring made from rosegold with a singular diamond sitting in its center.

Jeongyeon asked:

“Will you marry me?”

The proposal proceeded to reach new heights of romance:

A high pitched whine and another shove to Jeongyeon’s side. “You absolute and total _ fool _ , you incredible _ idiot _ , you stupid,  _ one-celled _ eukaryote!” She pounded onto Jeongyeon’s chest with one hand, the other holding on to the box, tears freely streaming down her cheeks.

Jeongyeon laughed. “No shaming bacteria,” she said and received another punch for it. She caught Nayeon’s hand and pecked the palm, feeling it relax in her hold. Then she picked up the ring from the box. “Please marry me.”

Nayeon produced a big sniffle and leaned in, pressing a huge, wet, slightly salty kiss onto Jeongyeon’s lips, one hand cradling Jeongyeon’s cheek. “Of course I'll marry you, you big oaf!” While Jeongyeon slipped the ring onto her finger, she continued: “Suddenly disappearing, worrying me like that, taking the cat along, swearing Mina and by proxy Momo to secrecy, dragging yourself out into the snow, being  _ injured _ \- you are … you are …”

“The woman you love?” Jeongyeon supplied.

She watched Nayeon desperately try to cling to her annoyance, but it didn’t work. A last attempt was made, then her annoyance slipped away and she breathed out: “Yeah …”

Jeongyeon grinned and leaned in to kiss her and Nayeon, her lips still tasting salty, half climbed her, her kiss enthusiastic and happy and frustrated at the same time. “You are an idiot.”

“But I’m  _ your _ idiot,” Jeongyeon mumbled against her lips.

Nayeon grunted and smiled into the kiss and kissed her harder, happier.

It would have probably escalated -  _ again _ \- if not for a knock at the door.

With a groan, Nayeon rolled off her patient and turned towards the offending sound. “Yes?”

The door opened somewhat sheepishly and a face was stuck in that Jeongyeon recognized immediately. The woman stepped inside. She was tall and carried herself with a certain kind of elegance, but her smile was kind. Last time they had met her, she had been wearing a white coat.

“Hello. I was just wondering if it would be possible to talk to the patient at least once before I return tomorrow.”

“Doctor Lee! How did you get here?”

The door opened further to reveal Jihyo. “Flew her in. Weather got better. She was kind enough to look after you during her holiday.”

Sunmi pointed with a thumb over her shoulder. “Jihyo here asked me to come over.” She turned to Jihyo and looked at the younger woman, smiling brightly.

Jeongyeon watched - with amazement - how Jihyo returned to the smile and blushed a lovely peach color.

“Oh my God,” Jeongyeon whispered.

“Shh. You’ll scare them away!” Nayeon whispered back, then her voice grew to her normal volume. “She has recovered enough already to annoy me tremendously.”

Sunmi directed her gentle smile at Nayeon, then at Jeongyeon, before she came closer and sat down on the side of the bed when Nayeon moved away. “Well, if that isn’t amazing news.”

Jihyo greeted Nayeon with a hug the moment she stepped away from the bed. “She annoyed you enough for you to say yes, it seems?” she asked with a nod to Nayeon’s hand. “Was it a moment of temporary insanity?”

“Insanity yes, but not temporary,” Nayeon mumbled into Jihyo’s hair when the smaller woman hugged her.

“Congratulations,” Jihyo whispered against her ear.

Nayeon hugged her tighter. “Thank you.”

Jeongyeon met Nayeon’s eyes over Jihyo’s shoulder. Her eyes twinkled and she was ready to cry again.

Jeongyeon mouthed three words at her - and it was enough for Nayeon’s tears to  _ actually _ spill - and then Sunmi cleared her throat and started with her medical examination.

Afterwards when she was declared fine, the others poured in, occupying various spots on the bed and the armchair and when Mina finally pointed out the ring, it escalated to hugs and tears and congratulations - and later on to a delayed but very happy Christmas celebration.

Around three days later, after Nayeon had disappeared in her workshop in the cellar for copious amounts of time, she returned with a ring made from palladium with thin silver veins running through it that she pushed onto Jeongyeon’s finger, so everybody would know that “she already had an owner”.

Jeongyeon tried to communicate that everyone already  _ knew _ that she was taken, but Nayeon didn’t listen. Instead she kissed her and proceeded to do other things afterwards and Jeongyeon decided that it was moot to argue the point.

“I love you,” Jeongyeon managed to say - and it didn’t seem enough, those three words, especially since they were spoken weakly because Nayeon had bitten a hickey to her throat. So instead she kissed her again and again, until they were both weak and breathless and their rings gleamed in the darkness.

Snow covered the residence and the quiet returned to that small place in the beautiful countryside, filled with love and friendship and laughter and Jeongyeon knew and would never take it for granted:

_ Life was good. _

End.

**Author's Note:**

> I want to thank:  
> @vinyloverlord, for our convos; *sigh*raa, @hotgirljeong and Maria for always liking and commenting and talking to me; @_Tanark for the cool conversations about writing and for writing an excellent gfriend AU; @TwiceNStuff who always lets me bother her; @Lmar92487 - you are doing well, dude, don't worry; @2yeon_michaeng for talking about fics; and @holcene, man, just because. You are a great writer.  
> Thanks also to: @notyoojeong, @jeongbaeyah, @Najeong49701502, @jeongyeoniee, @rezadsta, @OnceMiguIX, @airish_here, @MaskBehinda and @najeongtrash (I hope you like this).  
> If @skyclectic happens to read this, come at me, bro! After some research I found out that your story was the first 2yeon I read, so I blame you for all of this! <3 (But no, seriously, thanks a ton for that 2yeon.)  
> Special thanks to Ten (@makeMeGoTen) for beta-ing. Thank you so much. You rule.
> 
> Very special thanks to Izzy. You know why.


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